Post Writer's Conference Glow -- Kerry

After a serious case of preconference jitters, which included running phrases through my head such as, "what if the agents laugh at me and my writing?" or worse yet, "what if the agents laugh at me and my writing behind my back?" I had a great time at the Willamette Writer's Conference.
As much fun as I've had doing anything educational since maybe my sophmore year in college when I spent an entire term watching the Yanamamo Indians of the Amazon in endless films for Anthropology 202. The professor always had a pot of coffee and some treat that involved sugar. This is a direct analogy to my experience at the conference: bottomless urns of Starbucks coffee, cookies at three o'clock, and entertaining speakers whose only requirement from me was to sit and watch them.
For three days, I absorbed seminars with abandon:
Grant writing, How to write a winning proposal, Writing through your dreams and revelations - the stuff of dreams for aspiring writers to immerse themselves in.
Then there was the frosting on the cake - we actually got to talk to real live agents about our book proposals, show them our writing, and talk entirely about ourselves for fifteen real minutes. Of course we had to pay $25 for each of these sessions, but still, as LWC friend Julie would say in relationship to paying for therapy: "What's not to like about talking solely about yourself to someone who's paid to listen?"
Turns out though the agents were paid to listen, a few even responded appreciatively and two even want more material from me.
So my biggest nightmare didn't come true, no laugh in my face rejections, at least not in front of me anyway...